Foundation season 2’s finale is great in a way streaming shows rarely get to be

polygon.com:

The second season of Foundation starts slow. That makes sense: The initial few episodes are forced to pick up the pieces of the first season’s scattered finale, introduce half a dozen new characters, and set the stage for a whole new story set more than a hundred years after the first season.

In many ways, it’s like starting a whole new series — just set in a world you’re already familiar with, which means it has all the doldrums early-series episodes can bring too. But none of that stops Foundation from having an excellent final stretch of episodes and an outstanding ending, proving that starting fresh each season might be a great idea after all for Apple TV Plus’ Isaac Asimov adaptation.

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for Foundation season 2.]

Foundation season 2’s second half is when it really starts to sing, and the final run of episodes build to some particularly impressive and satisfying payoffs, as its sprawling cast finally meet each other and find their own neat and tidy places in the story. Hober Mallow and Constant’s sweet romance feels subtle but sturdily built; Hober’s scheming with Bel Riose feels shrewd and clever in a way that the show rarely aims for; and Gaal and Hari getting the second Foundationup and running feels like the series finally finding equal footing for the two of them to stand on.

Even the various machinations of the Cleon clones hit their own emotional climaxes at just the right moments: Dawn gets to ride off into the sunset for a fairy-tale ending, Day finally gets the fight he’s been itching for all season (then gets bested by an airlock), and Dusk learns the secrets he’s been searching for about his existence (and dies for it).

Foundation season 2 is simply a really good